 The worst battle isn't one you fight in the game... While Frodo and Sam are off gallivanting across Middle Earth to deliver a ring to Sauron, three companions from three races are off to stop a slightly less evil adversary. At least the eagles show up for more than the last 30 seconds.
1. Gameplay
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North follows a ranger, dwarf, and an effeminate elf as they slay hundreds of orcs, goblins, and trolls in their quest to fight one of the ultimate sources of evil within Middle Earth. But let me stop you before you run away thinking that you’ll be playing as Aragorn, Gimley, and Legolas. While that more famous trio does make an appearance, you’ll be playing as an entirely separate trio as they fight against one of Sauron’s “evil but not quite as bad as the all-seeing eye” minions.  This dragon should have been the villain, but wasn't. If you can overlook the fact that this game really should have starred the more well-known trio, the story is pretty cool. The eagles have a much more prominent role and many recognizable characters will make cameos and have conversations with the player. Bilbo will even give the player a small quest, which is pretty awesome for fans of the movies. Unfortunately, the fun kind of stops there. Setting aside the numerous game-breaking bugs (discussed at length in the “Frustration Factor” section), there isn’t really enough content to make this game enjoyable. The computer AI are decent at times, but sometimes they’re frustratingly stupid. The game is cooperative with up to 2 other players, but characters that are at a lower point in the story can’t join players at a higher level. There are some interesting quests, but side quests are almost non-existent. There are some good conversations with characters, but very few of them ever give information or items valuable to the player.  Aragon, meet the three least utilized people in all of Middle Earth. The action is repetitive too. The player will enter an area, slash his enemies until they’re all dead, and then move on. Sometimes the game will throw in a curve ball and make the player kill tons of enemies until an ally opens a door or something like that, but those are rare and still involve the player hacking and slashing until all of the enemies are dead.  Calling in the eagle was fun though. The one thing that kept me going with this game was that I was playing it with a human companion. So it was a great time for us to spend time together and have fun. It’s a simple game that, when it works, is easy to pick up and enjoy. But players shouldn’t look for something groundbreaking here. There are many other games that do what this does but far better.
War in the North’s campaign lasted around 17 hours, which is decently long. It feels much longer because of the repetitiveness of the action. Unfortunately, this also means that I was left with very little desire to replay the campaign. Even with my current characters, the campaign didn’t leave much reason for me to try and replay it. I played through it to find out how the story ended. Once it was over, there wasn’t much reason to go back. Even if there were, the numerous bugs I ran into keep me from wanting to go through the frustration of working around them.
I have played few games that have frustrated me as much as this game. This isn’t the most frustrating game I have ever played, but it’s definitely up there. There were plenty of game-breaking bugs that made it through development and that I inevitably encountered through my gameplay. While I have no problem letting one or two issues slip by, when a bug prevents my ability to play the game I get irritated. The worst bugs seemed to hit all at once and nearly prevented me from finishing this game. I was playing through with a partner when, shortly after completing a chapter, she was disconnected. When she finally reconnected, the game indicated that she had not finished the previous chapter. She couldn’t rejoin my game because, due to a setting that prevents lower-level characters from joining upper-level characters, the game would have prevented her from saving her character’s items and abilities. We tried to have her finish the chapter she was on so that we would be at the same place again, but after defeating the boss a second bug prevented her from completing the chapter. This meant that she couldn’t join my game and we couldn’t finish hers. She would have been completely unable to continue the game without restarting completely.  We killed this guy way too many times. Could never move on to the next level. Fortunately for us, we were playing on the PC version. After hours of thought, I managed to figure out that she could use my profile on her computer. She would just have to remake her character, but she’d be at the same level as me. This was an acceptable alternative, but would have been impossible if we had played on a console (like the Xbox 360 or PS3). My research online indicated that my issues affected all consoles and have never been fixed. These kinds of issues are unacceptable in game design. Even worse, these weren’t the only major issues we ran into. There were numerous other occasions where we had to quit and re-open the game because we either ended up loading into different parts of a level or could not connect to each other even though we could see the other person’s game. I would never recommend this game to even my diehard extremely tech-savvy friends, since the frustration I went through was not worth the sense of accomplishment I get upon completion of a similar game. 2. Parental Notices
This game was pretty violence at times, but the sheer number of enemies (especially in the later chapters of the game) kept me from giving this an even higher rating. Outside of the rest areas, the player will be engaged in almost constant combat. Combat usually involves swords, shields, and staves. Hits on an enemy will result in a decent amount of blood, but that is usually cleared from the battlefield quickly.  Orcs bleed black, in case you didn't know. A similar amount of blood will come from the player when he is hit, but this is much less noticeable since the player will be more worried about survival.  You'll learn to dislike trolls. Frequently the player will deal attacks that will sever an enemy’s limb. If it’s an arm or leg, this will disappear along with the rest of the body after a short time.  I think that's a leg on the left. He's dead either way. Even more frequently, the player can deal a killing blow to an enemy that will sever the enemy’s neck, causing instant decapitation. Sometimes the game will slow down and zoom in on this action, focusing on the carnage for a brief second before the player resumes hacking and slashing.  Off with his head! If an enemy is hit with an elemental weapon, such as one that has fire damage added, the element will envelope that enemy for a short period of time after being hit. It’s pretty easy to miss since the effect is brief.  I always had to add the elemental damage on to my weapons. As I mentioned, though, the severity of the violence is lost in the quantity of violence. The player never has time to stop and “admire” the carnage, because there’s always another enemy to attack. The blood is very noticeable and the decapitations can be fairly clear, but I never felt like the carnage made an impact. If you’re okay with having your kids watch the violence in the movies, you shouldn’t have a problem with the violence in the game.  This will probably seem familiar to Lord of the Rings fans.
Sexuality is not a factor in this game.
Substances are hardly a factor in this game. The players can use health potions and mana potions to restore health and power, but there isn’t even an animation for drinking the potions. The player simply hits the right button and they glow either red for health or blue for mana.  This is healing. For mana, just imagine that but with blue spikes. The elf character can pick up ingredients around the world for use in making potions, cakes, and other consumables. The items are usually flowers and mushrooms and are abundant in every level. However, the process of creating the potions is as simplistic as consuming them. The player finds the two items to combine, clicks on one and then clicks on another. At the very beginning of the game there is a tavern where patrons can be seen drinking something from mugs. The drink is never specified, however.  It comes in pints?
At the very beginning of the game you can engage in a game of riddles with a hobbit for money. That’s the only time when gambling is a factor in this game. 3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools available for this game.
Religion is not a factor in this game.
Anti-law is not a factor in this game.
The online community may have been a factor last year, but the age of this game and the problems described previously have suppressed the remnants of the gaming community from keeping this game alive. The multiple times I searched for people to play with online, no hits popped up. As a result, the online community is not a factor in this game.
Extreme sports are a rare factor in this game. There aren’t many opportunities for the player to engage in stunts or risky maneuvers. The most common form of this are the few times when the characters can be seen riding on the backs of the eagles. It’s not like the eagles are doing stunts though.  It'd be like holding onto the wings of a Cessna while flying in a blizzard. On one occasion the players climb a snowy mountain in order to gain access to a fortress without being seen.  How could they climb that and still have energy to fight?
As this is Lord of the Rings, magic use is pretty heavy. The specific amount will depend on which character the player decides to use. While the ranger and the dwarf hardly ever use magic, the elf’s ranged attack is magic-based. There will be enemies that use magical abilities, but they’re surprisingly rare. The most obvious use of magic by an enemy is the magic used by the zombie ghost things halfway through the game.  This is where they live. No magic here at all. There is one enemy that manages to possess an elf and forces the elf to fight the player.  Voldemort, in ghost form. The final boss uses lighting-based magic to attack the player. He ends up getting destroyed by that same lightning.  Strike me down with all your hatred...
Human Disfigurement In one section the player has to fight a zombie-like undead ghost army. These aren’t particularly intimidating enemies, but they were clearly meant to be human at some time.  Zombies with swords? This changes everything.
1 Comment
Carlos (Not really)
2/20/2015 06:16:31 am
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